


a taste of happiness

by shadhahvar



Series: Yuri!!! On Crackfic [4]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Food Truck, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Nonconsensual Gelato Feeding to a Dramatic Crier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 11:04:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14259579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadhahvar/pseuds/shadhahvar
Summary: Chris runs a gelato food truck that gives a mood boost to all who dine on his confections.  Georgi becomes a regular.





	a taste of happiness

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the mini-bang bings running through the [Live and Love Yuri!!! On Ice Big Bang](https://liveloveyoibang.tumblr.com/) running on Tumblr. Thank you so much to [Ing](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ingthing/) and [Luna](https://argyros.tumblr.com/) for brainstorming and inspiring this!
> 
> Also check out Luna's incredible art of the opening scene [here](http://argyros.tumblr.com/post/172741339577/for-you-victor-said-plastering-on-a-smile-that) on Tumblr! Please like and reblog!

Christophe loved his best friend. Really, he did. So when Victor Nikiforov, celebrated writer and podcast personality, appeared at the side of Chris’s gelato truck with tears streaming down his face, he knew he had to do something. He could practically taste the fuming anger underneath the pervasive sadness that had his eyes watering up sympathetically as Victor leaned against the counter, leveling Chris with a stare.

“One cup of happiness, please.”

“What’s going on, Victor?”

Victor leaned in, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Georgi’s had another breakup.”

Chris blinked, the sense of sadness rising like a wave in his chest. Soon he’d be crying too. Why in the world was Victor so upset over _Georgi’s_ breakup?

“Okay?”

“Not okay.” Victor continued to cry. Chris caught sight of movement to Victor’s side; Yuuri Katsuki stood there holding up his smartphone. He was also crying, brow furrowed as snot slowly dripped down from his nose. For all intents and purposes, it looked like he was photographing _Victor_.

Chris’s distraction meant he hadn’t heard what Victor said. When Victor stared at him expectantly all he managed was a ready smile and a, “Of course. Happiness, you said?”

“Yes. One each for all three of us.”

Chris frowned, leaning to Victor’s _other_ side to see past to where the man who must be Georgi stood bundled in a winter coat. With his handkerchief pressed to his mouth and shoulders hunched forward in his misery, Chris felt his own sadness intensifying as he took Georgi’s pathetic image in.

He rather disliked the sensation, turning away and busying himself with scooping out three cups of honey cinnamon gelato, the flavour closest to _happiness_ he had on hand. He blinked rapidly to chase away the tears gathering in his eyes, shoving a spoon in each perfect sphere of gelato and coming near to weeping over the transient nature of existence.

Just what the _hell_ was going on?

Victor slid money toward Chris then swept away with two of the three cups, handing one to Yuuri as he fumbled with his phone and marching off with the second to Georgi.

“For you,” Victor said, plastering on a smile that came from a lack of patience while he appeared to be desperately trying to remember why patience was a virtue in the first place, “Please eat it. Now.”

“I couldn’t even if I tried,” Georgi protested, pulling the handkerchief away. “My heart is a barren wasteland in the wake of my love’s leaving, and I don’t know when I will ever have an appetite again.” He choked up, starting to cry anew, sending a surge of sadness through Chris that felt like a vise slowly tightening around his chest.

Victor barely shuddered, smile slipping away. “Georgi, what was the name of your last lover?”

Georgi turned to face Victor, one hand pressed against his chest like he was keeping his heart contained through sheer personal effort. “My lovely angel Ah—”

Victor, a man perhaps destined to raise small children, had the spoonful of honey cinnamon gelato shoved into Georgi’s open mouth before the name fully formed on his tongue. Georgi pulled his head back, scandalised, Victor stepping forward along with him. Chris wanted to laugh at the image of two adult men in a standoff with one holding the bright pink spoon leading straight into the other man’s mouth, but he was still gamely fighting off the urge to cry.

Yuuri held up his phone again, taking a photo.

[](http://argyros.tumblr.com/post/172741339577/for-you-victor-said-plastering-on-a-smile-that)

Georgi blinked.

Victor offered over the rest of the gelato.

Just like that, the gelato stand-off ended. Georgi accepted the cup, taking ownership of the spoon. The pervasive sadness in the area shifted at rapid speed into the kind of happiness one experienced when encountering a delicious new flavour. Chris felt the vise around his chest loosen, Victor breathing out in an audible sigh of relief while Yuuri shook his head and shuffled closer to the counter.

“Do you have any towels?”

Chris leaned back, scanning his counter inside the gelato truck. “I have facial tissue paper?” He turned and reached out, grabbing it off the top shelf. Offering the whole container over to Yuuri, he overheard Georgi speaking in a much more subdued voice, “This is really good,” and Victor chuckling weakly in response. He looked at Yuuri, lifting his eyebrows.

“What just happened?” 

Yuuri took several tissues from the box, working on cleaning up his face. He still breathed heavily, eyes puffy like those of any person who’d been crying for a period of time, nose sounding stuffed. “Oh, I’m not really sure? Georgi leaks when he feels things strongly.” Yuuri shrugged before blowing his nose. “He seems to feel many things strongly. It’s when he gets too focused that it gets bad.”

Chris nodded, not fully understanding, but getting a vague idea. The happiness by now was warm enough he almost felt compelled to grin, in spite of his personal irritation.

“So Victor dragged him out here? How’d you even know where to find me today?” He hadn’t been texted, and it wasn’t his regular location.

Yuuri raised his hand, waggling his fingers. 

Chris sighed, amused and resigned. “You’re a force to be reckoned with, Yuuri.”

Tucking used tissues into his coat pockets, Yuuri offered Chris a small smile. “Yeah, well.” He scratched his cheek, holding his cup of gelato in his other hand. “Only when it comes to getting what I want.”

Chris knew Yuuri meant it in regards to food, but the statement as a whole was so accurate he burst out laughing. “Isn’t that the truth!”

Yuuri looked both perplexed and embarrassed, staring at Chris and hurriedly shoving a spoonful of honey cinnamon gelato into his mouth. Prevented from responding, he further allowed himself to be distracted by Victor as his errant fiancé joined him. Victor breathed out in a sigh of relief once he reached the counter.

“Chris, _thank_ you.”

“Sure, sure.” He waved a hand, dismissing his friend’s gratitude, glancing in Georgi’s direction once more. “Yuuri says Georgi leaks?”

Victor pulled his cup of gelato closer, snagging facial tissue to _pat pat pat_ at his damp cheeks. He nodded, tucking tissue into his pockets. “His emotions aren’t usually this sticky. He’s taken his break-up with…” He trailed off, looking back to Yuuri.

“Anya?”

“No, the one after that.”

“Chad?”

Victor snorted, fondly shaking his head. “No, that’s one of your would-be ex’s.”

Yuuri’s blank look prompted Chris into coughing to hide his laughter. 

“Anyway, between that and having his favourite eyeliner go out of production—”

“It’s a _tragedy_.” Georgi appeared over Victor’s shoulder, holding his pink spoon up for emphasis. “First Nastya leaves me to get in touch with her inner goddess of sensuality, whose divinity she claims isn’t compatible with mine, then _Bellissima Eyeliner_ declares their smoke gets in your eyes series is being discontinued!”

He shoved his spoon into his gelato, breathing in deep and wavering between that warmth of _I tasted something good and it makes me happy_ and the earlier _sadness overflows the bounds of my container and its soul_.

Chris turned away to scoop another perfect sphere of gelato into a cup, thrusting it toward Georgi with a flat grin. Georgi blinked down at him, slowly reaching out his hand. 

“For me?”

“On the truck.” Chris winked, rewarded by another blink from Georgi, then a small half-smile. 

“Thank you. This really is good.” Now he had two hands with cups, and no real way to handle the eating of gelato. Georgi shuffled closer to the counter to set the newest cup down, working on finishing off the first.

“You’re welcome. That one’s juicy raspberry.” Chris smiled, favouring Georgi with another wink as he watched Victor and Yuuri octopus around each other to the side of his gelato truck. “Absolutely droolworthy.”

Also infused with Chris’s sense of playfulness, which seemed to be a decent dovetail to the warm happiness even now bubbling at him from Georgi. When Yuuri and Victor mentioned him leaking, they hadn’t been exaggerating. Where most people Chris was near carried a hint of their emotions as something he almost smelled, Georgi projected so strongly it was like walking into a store selling fragrant bath soaps and lotions. The sense of bubbling happiness he was feeling wasn’t just relief from the sadness and Georgi’s change in mood: he was feeling Georgi’s reaction to eating his gelato.

Chris found it fascinating in an unexpected way. Even more so when Georgi picked up the raspberry gelato, taking a spoonful and letting his eyes flutter closed with a noise of appreciation humming through his throat and nose. Chris felt a suggestion of playfulness move through him at the same time, mixing and mingling with the happiness. The sadness was still there, a kind of ache of loneliness in the pit of his stomach, but it didn’t hurt like it had earlier. The vise preventing him and Georgi from breathing had disappeared.

“Thank you again, Chris!” Victor waved, hand in hand with Yuuri. Georgi still looked haggard and melodramatically pathetic as he politely threw his empty cup into the trash bin Chris placed next to his truck, but he smiled as he left.

“Thank you, Gelato Angel!”

Chris tried to keep himself from laughing at that bit of ridiculousness, but it got away from him in the end. Just who in the world did Georgi think he was anyway?

* * *

Chris had no firm answers to that question, and didn’t much mind. His concerns were caught up in bottom lines and upkeep expenses and an upcoming health inspection, which he knew he’d pass, but still had to plan for. Victor and Yuuri invited him to dinner as another thanks, their tag-team cooking efforts a culinary adventure. Most the time it paid off, and Chris admired their domestic bliss as much as he also found it a bit jealousy-inducing. It was hard, but he accepted both feelings. He remembered Victor before, when he had that drive and his emotional touch grew more and more distant and closed off with time.

He didn’t think about Georgi again until he was hit by a gnawing melancholy one afternoon, parked in a lot with several other food trucks catering to the afternoon crowd. He frowned, concentrating on the feeling, after a moment determining that it wasn’t stemming from any particular emotion of his own. The intensity of an outside emotion was overwhelming, albeit not as much as the first time he met— _Georgi_.

Chris looked up, catching sight of a familiar shape moving through the thin crowd. Georgi had his hair in the same sweeping fashion as before, almost like he’d once been shown an anvil and decided to live a lifelong homage in hairstyle. Which was unkind, Chris reflected. Georgi was a decently handsome man when he wasn’t bawling his eyes out. He even managed to pull off brooding and not look like an idiot while doing so. 

Still, the moment where Georgi turned his head and made eye contact with Chris, blinking and breaking out into a small, pleased smile, caught Chris off-guard. Acting like that he was almost striking, the blue of his eyes standing out against the deep blue of his v-neck shirt, visible through the open front of his coat.

He lifted a hand, turning toward Christophe with a dramatic flare that reminded Chris of Victor on his more relaxed days. Georgi apparently worked with Victor in some capacity, but he couldn’t remember what that was as Georgi strode over, getting in line behind the two women who apparated out of thin air.

“Today’s specials are lavender honey, hazelnut, and ginger. Everything else is on menu as usual.” He motioned to the list to the side of his truck, waiting with a flirtatious grin for the women to make their decisions. Three scoops of what amounted to flirtation, nostalgia, and longing later, Chris bid them good day.

Georgi stood there pouring over the usual menu, holding his chin between his thumb and the knuckle of his forefinger. 

“Fancy meeting you here.” Chris planted his elbows on the countertop as he leaned forward, subtly stretching out his legs. Georgi flicked his eyes away from the menu to Chris, lips pulling up into a small, private smile.

“An absolute mystery, finding you at your one-man gelato truck. What was the inspiration behind all this, anyway?”

Chris hummed, glancing to the side as if he was taking in the same view of the truck as Georgi from the customer side of the open counter. “A hobby that got away from me. I combined things I love, and I ended up here.” He gestured to the counter and truck as a whole, as much as he could given where he was standing. “I’m my own boss, and I can’t say that doesn’t suit me too. Now, what’ll you be wanting today?”

Georgi resumed looking over the standard menu. “Surprise me.” He smiled, lips closed, the expression on his face softened. “If this is what you love, then there can’t be anything not worth trying at least once.”

He laughed, pushing back off the counter and taking down one of the sugar cones. “Considering which side of the counter we’re standing on, shouldn’t I be the one sweet talking?”

Georgi blinked, then chuckled, hunching his shoulders a little toward his ears. He turned his face away, staring down the side of the truck with his chin angled toward his shoulder. “The things we make out of love are always worth celebrating, no matter where we’re standing.”

Chris caught sight of the pinkish tinge to Georgi’s cheeks, a stain that could have been from the wind if it hadn’t been absent earlier. He refrained from shaking his head. Rebounds were messy business. He hoped Georgi knew that, too, as he handed him over a cone with two scoops of ginger. Meditative calm to combat the melancholy and forcible good cheer he felt pouring off Georgi. “Double scoop of ginger. Good for digestion,” he said, winking. 

Georgi faced him again, lifting his eyebrows and accepting the cone while handing over a bill. “For digestion? With all that cream?”

“You’re not going to tell me you’re lactose intolerant, are you?”

Georgi licked his gelato with a non-committal hum which turned into a pleased little sound of surprise, eyes opening wide as he swallowed. “It tastes like real ginger! That zing, with the underlying spicy tang, and a hint of candied sweetness… incredible!”

Chris could feel the calm twining through the other emotions, could almost taste the ginger on his tongue as Georgi spoke. He shook off the sensation, falling back on a laugh and counting out change for a distraction. He never felt how his gelato worked on people; not before Georgi. “An experience to be savoured to the very last drop.” He said with a wink, handing Georgi back his change. “Leaving no sticky messes behind.”

Georgi, currently licking a drop of gelato off his knuckle, chuckled. “If things heat up too quickly, messes can be unavoidable.”

He doubted it was on purpose, but having someone walk blindly into innuendo was almost as fun as them walking in wide eyed and knowing. “Ah, but in the heat of the moment, do you really mind when everything comes undone?”

He paused with his tongue stuck out, licking up the length of his cone. When Georgi pulled his head back, he licked his lips and swallowed, considering Chris’s postulation. “In the heat of the moment it’s easy to lose yourself, body and soul.” He sighed, a touch melodramatic, giving Chris a full smile after. “It’s when you still want to indulge with a clear head and an open mind that you truly embrace the spirit of loving passion.”

Georgi tucked his change into his pocket, turning and leaving with a dramatic flare so similar and yet _distinctly different_ from what Chris knew with Victor. All Chris knew was that in watching Georgi walk away, he never once saw him turn around.

And with that dratted coat, Chris didn’t even get to enjoy the view.

* * *

Georgi found Chris’s truck about once a week, usually on the weekdays. He never texted, and neither did Victor nor Yuuri; Chris wasn’t sure if he’d just asked for a schedule of Chris’s rotation of locations or had some other mysterious means of finding his truck.

They’d conversed off and on depending on how busy Chris was whenever Georgi tracked him down, building up a decent give and take and a lopsided sort of flirtation that Chris half thought was happening, half thought was getting turned into something else entirely. 

Georgi always asked to be surprised by this or that flavour, and each time, the change to his emotional projection was fascinating. His underlying melancholy was shifting, too, becoming less and less part of his general mood. Chris noticed the first time Georgi showed up with a feeling of anticipation that bubbled over into happier anticipation all on its own once he made eye contact with Chris.

Interesting, and unexpected. What kind of gelato lover was he, really? 

“How do you end up tracking me down, anyway?” Chris studied Georgi’s face when he finally gave into curiosity and asked. 

Georgi gestured for a moment, then pulled out his phone. He offered it to Chris, the screen lit up by an app called Foodie Streets. 

“I think it uses twitter updates or something to keep track.” He licked his spoon clean with long, smooth strokes of his tongue. Chris had learned from across the counter experience that Georgi was very, very thorough in his pleasures, including eating. It was at times both absurd and absurdly distracting. “When it looks like our paths are destined to cross, I head out.”

Chris tapped on the map, eyebrows inching upward. He hadn’t used any of the different apps out there because his business had been managing fairly well just by word of mouth and those drawn to the promises of delectables offered by the exterior decorations. Trying to add social media managing on top of his already full schedule seemed currently unnecessary, particularly when he was involved with several groups on rotating schedules for different parts of the city and outlying areas.

Which, actually… “When our paths are destined to cross?” He squinted at Georgi as he returned his phone. “Don’t you work at the same place Victor does?”

Georgi pulled his spoon back out of his mouth slowly, eyes aimed skyward.

“It’s really good gelato,” he said at last, tapping the spoon against the point of his chin. “Worth a small epic journey once a week or so.” He glanced back to Chris, lips quirked into a genuine smile. “What can I say? There’s very little I wouldn’t do for the sake of what I love.”

Chris quirked his eyebrow in return, leaning forward on his elbows. “Meaning what, exactly?”

“Christophe.” Georgi turned to properly face him, spoon resting in his gelato cup. “Can I take you out to dinner?”

He found himself grinning, fluttering his lashes at Georgi before he sighed, clucking his tongue. “Took you long enough to come to the point! Any longer would have been _edging_ on painful.”

The light blush dusting Georgi’s cheeks and the tip of his nose was followed by two perfectly arched brows and Georgi’s searching look. “I wasn’t trying to tease.”

“Oh, but _I_ was,” Chris said, cheerful enough. “And yes, you can. Wednesday at eight?”

“Yes, that’s fine!” Georgi started to smile, hands out of his pockets, raised like he was about to pantomime a rather large hug. He tipped his head to the side. “Though why Wednesday?”

Chris winked, standing up at the counter. “Because that’s my hump day.”

“Oh. Well.” Georgi paused, arms dropping back down as he started laughing. “Makes as much sense as anything else in the world. Wednesday at eight at La Vie en Rose!” He beamed, taking a step back and offering a blown kiss. “I’ll see you there!”

Chris caught the blown kiss with one hand, Georgi’s giddy excitement and tempered happiness rolling over him. If there was one thing he knew, it was the bitter melancholy that’d been haunting Georgi months ago was no longer sitting there in the pit of his stomach. The man was surprisingly resilient. 

The man was also jogging back to Christophe’s truck, slamming both hands down on the countertop. “Chris! Flowers. Do you like roses?”

Holding up an ice cream paddle, Chris closed his mouth and nodded before he replied. “By any other name…” He tossed Georgi another wink.

“Would smell as sweet.” Georgi fisted his hand, pressing it to the center of his chest, eyes bright. “Wonderful! Until Wednesday, Swiss Angel of Gelato!”

Chris watched him race off again, slowly lowering the ice cream paddle. “When in the world did he upgrade me to Swiss Angel of Gelato?” 


End file.
